DISQUS

Jon Moss · 2 years ago

Hey John,

Great post and good timing for me....
With the impending iPhone arrival in the Uk, (about damn time), I am looking to streamline my calendar and contacts.

I was using Google Calendar, and was very pleased, but recently it has been playing silly wotsits - not deleting properly and generally being naughty. I had purchased Spanning Sync to sync with iCal but have now given up on Gcal completely.

For contacts, I use the Address Book App but also Highrise from 37 signals. Greatascent is on a beta at the mo for syncing Highrise and Address book but I had some problems with that too.

So, I am still trying to get it all streamlined in time for the 9th Nov!

James · 2 years ago

funambol! its an open source calendar/contact/mail syncing application based on syncml. this all happens over the net and the system works with outlook, windows mobile, thunderbird, evolution (this is what I use).. it also can implement push email and calendar changes if your mobile provider gives you a public ip.

John Jantsch · 2 years ago

James,

Thanks for that type I was not familiar with funambol - I'll check it out

Joe · 2 years ago

Why use a local email client at all?

John Jantsch · 2 years ago

Joe,

Habit I suppose, but you're right and I've considered moving to GMail.

darryl ohrt · 2 years ago

Wow. Great post - and good timing.

I used to have a PC AND a mac, and when I got the iPhone, eliminated the PC. One less machine in my life is great.

So I too, have been searching for a better email client. (Use Gmail for safety net, but don't like it as my main client)

I use Google's calendar, fed through RSS to iCal, and then to iPhone. Sucks that it only works one way, and I can't add stuff to the iPhone and have it show in my main calendar. Has me considering a migration to iCal.

I too have been ignoring all of the positive chatter on Plaxo, and your post has me curious. Did you send out that email to all of your contacts? How did they react?

John Jantsch · 2 years ago

Darryl,

I did not do the wholesale contact dump. I selectively asked and took the time to write a custom message, acknowledging that it was a minor hassle. I received about 50% uptake and considering the spam filtering issues I thought that was pretty good.

Taking the time to write a custom message is worth it. Nothing is more irritating than the canned stuff from the vendor.

Darrin Dickey · 2 years ago

John,

I ignored Plaxo requests from people for a while, skeptical that one more online service wanted my contact info. But once I started using it, I was addicted. Today, like you, I'm a subscriber to their premium service and it's one of my most valued services.

BTW, someone asked why use a local mail client at all. I need my contacts to be available offline sometimes for various reasons, including when I'm somewhere I have no connection. If nothing else, Outlook is good offline contact management for me.

Darrin

Jason · 2 years ago

Ok your idea is probobly much cheaper however I subscribe to APPRIVER.com and it's an exchange server for 12.00 per month. It is fully compatable with windows mobile (treo user) and will even work with a Blackberry. It has an amazing spam fiter cuts about 200 spam messages per day and it has yet to delete any legitimate mail.

Jason

Gavin Ingham · 2 years ago

I have always shared your doubts and have built up my own share of karmic debt over the years.

Recently I did reconsider but was put off by several clients expressing their ongoing reservations.

I may well now reconsider...

Ted · 2 years ago

I would like to answer the question, "Why use a local e-mail client at all." It's necessary in a corpoprate environment where other people need to access my calendar, and other people's calendars, to schedule group meetings and determine that availability of the participants.

As for Plaxo, I've been using it for several years. I have it set up for access from my home computer and from the office computer (both use MS Outlook). When I enter a contact or appointment (or when anyone schedules an appointment for me) it automatically gets posted to both computers - almost instantaneously. It's also nice to be able to access all of the information from any computer, anywhere, including the schedule updates from my co-workers.

I also synchronize a Palm with Outlook so I have everything with me whether I'm at a computer or not. In this case, having the phone numbers of my contacts has frequestly been a life saver (ok, maybe just a time-saver).

The ability to inform your entire communication group about changes to you e-mail address or any other personal information -- without have to send an e-mail to everyone -- is also a wonderful time saver.

Ted at PSSIUSA.com

Brandon Weber · 2 years ago

I have finally gotten my iPhone, Google Calendar and iCal working seamlessly.

I like to keep my Calendars on-line, so Google calendar is great. I have Spanning Sync which syncs both ways with my iCal. When I make a change on my Phone, I can sync with my Mac, which in turn syncs with Google Calendar.

All of my email runs through gMail first (amazing & teachable junk filters!) before having them forwarded to an IMAP account that keeps all of my computers (yes, I occasionally use a PC) on the same page. I also use gMail for archiving all of my email (I even BCC it and have a rule for my mail to go into the "sent" category). But I still like to read it for the most part through my mail client(s).

Joe · 2 years ago

FYI - gmail is in the process of rolling out IMAP access for gmail - this means you can keep all of your email in gmail and access with any web client - with no sync problems.

Ted - yes, I agree, in a corporate environment a local email client is necessary.

John Jantsch · 2 years ago

Joe,

IMAP for gmail, something exists with a .mac or Yahoo mail account, will be a good solution.